Long Island weather: Rain for Monday morning commute

Rain and a gradual warmup Monday will make the morning and evening commutes a slippery, slushy challenge for Long Islanders back at work after the holidays, according to the National Weather Service.

Temperatures will top out at 51 degrees Monday and a tenth to a quarter of an inch of rain is forecast to fall in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

The weather service predicts that the rain, which was forecast to start Sunday evening, will eventually contribute to the melting of much of the 4 to 8 inches of snow that accumulated on Long Island on Friday and Saturday, making driving conditions treacherous. Temperatures on Sunday evening will rise just above freezing, said Matthew Wunsch, a meteorologist with the weather service.

"There should be a decent amount of melting between the rain and the warm temperatures [on Monday]," Wunsch said.

Monday evening's low will drop below freezing, Wunsch added.

Tuesday is forecast to be partly sunny with a high of 33 and occasional gusts as high as 36 mph, the weather service said.

Many Long Islanders will just be making their way home amid one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

More than 122 million Americans will drive more than 50 miles from home in the last week or so of the year, according to AAA. That’s a 2% increase from last year’s record number of drivers during the same time period.

Long Island traffic was close to normal on Sunday, according to the state Department of Transportation, and Long Island Rail Road trains were running on or close to schedule.

Meanwhile, across the nation’s airports, an average of nearly 3 million passengers have flown each day so far in the final two weeks of December, according to the Airlines for America trade association. New York City was the 7th most popular holiday travel destination, according to AAA.

Winter weather caused about one in five flights leaving Kennedy and LaGuardia airports to be canceled on Saturday, among 1,300 cancellations nationwide.

As of 5 p.m. on Sunday, about 417 flights leaving Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Liberty airports were delayed, according to the online flight-tracking website, FlightAware. Another 390 incoming flights were canceled as of Sunday evening.